


Dec 10: By The Book

by sidhwen



Series: White Collar Advent calendar drabbles [10]
Category: White Collar
Genre: (she's drinking wine), Christmas Decorations, Gen, Holiday Season, M/M, Multi, OT3, POV Neal, Pre-OT3, Set before El's pregnancy, White Collar Advent 2014, aka: an oldie but a goodie, trope-y
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2752472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidhwen/pseuds/sidhwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holiday Dinner with the Burkes went great until it didn't (or did it?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dec 10: By The Book

“Happy Holidays! Dinner smells delicious, El. Thank you for the invitation.” Neal gave his hostess a charming but genuine grin as well as a bottle of red Rioja. “What’s cooking?”  
Elizabeth smiled at him indulgently after ushering him inside to keep the warmth in. “Oh you know you’re always welcome here. And don’t worry, I didn’t make meat loaf!” She winked.  
Neal wondered for a moment who had let slip that while he really enjoyed El’s cooking overall, he didn’t care much for her meat loaf. It wouldn’t do to insult the hostess. After making a mental note though to ask Peter and Mozzie about it sometime, he let it go. Elizabeth didn’t seem upset either when she continued dragging Neal into the kitchen. “It’s roast lamb!”  
“The wine will go great with that” Neal nodded appreciatively. Peter, who had just finished setting the table for three, smiled at him and his wife. “Let’s eat!”

~~~

Good food, good conversation, good wine – the evening went splendidly. That was, until Neal came to help Peter with the dishes. ‘What is up with me tonight?’ Neal scolded himself. He could usually pride himself on his discerning attentiveness in any situation. Then again, he hadn’t exactly come over to the Burkes’ with any intent (or need) to case their house. Also, there had admittedly been a fair amount of wine. So Neal could possibly forgive himself for not spotting the upsetting plant earlier.

Elizabeth, however, didn’t appear troubled at all. She just stifled a grin. “I just hung that today – Peter probably hasn’t noticed it yet either.” Her husband, with a look of dawning dread on his face, slowly raised his eyes to the ceiling. “You didn’t.” Peter looked at her accusingly. His wife was unrepentant though. “Well hon, it’s usually you and me who do the dishes together, so I thought it would be nice. You know as well as I do that I’m in charge of placing the mistletoe somewhere else in the house each year. And need I remind you that every year you say-“ Peter shot her a glowering look while finishing: “…tradition is tradition, and this one I love as much as I love you.”  
Elizabeth nodded approvingly. “Yes, you do. Now how about that tradition? After all, you do everything else by the book. So no excuses.”

Peter turned his head towards Neal, stony-faced. Neal wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Which part was so terrible here – the fact that he had to kiss Neal or that he had to do it in front of his wife? Neal himself couldn’t deny that he had imagined this before – not necessarily with El present (although that wasn’t such a terrible prospect either). Where Peter stood on the matter, however, he had no idea. If the other man were better with social cues, they might have communicated the issue before. 

But no. Of course Neal had to find out the hard way. He sighed internally. This wasn’t how he he’d ever picture it, and putting this kind of pressure on Peter didn’t sit right with him either. “Turn your face to the side.” Peter frowned a little but complied. Neal inhaled his cologne while closing the distance between them, leaning up to reach the taller man’s cheek. Lightly, he brushed his lips against the freshly-shaved skin. Lingering for a moment but not too long as to not make Peter uncomfortable, he memorized this. The scent, the warmth, the closeness of Peter. Then Neal drew away quickly. Did his eyes trick him (like they seemed prone to do that night) or were the other man’s eyes glazed over a little? But then Peter blinked and the illusion(?) was gone.

“Well, well, well.” El’s voice startled them both. “That wasn’t quite enough in terms of our traditional rules.” Peter looked alarmed until his wife started to smile. “But I’ll let it count.”  
Neal wasn’t sure but he thought he heard a murmured “this time” after that. Surely it was the wine messing with his senses tonight. Again.

Elizabeth beckoned them over to the table, from where she had had a perfect view. If Neal didn’t chicken out, he would ask her later what her husband’s facial reaction to Neal pecking him had been.  
Peter sat back down, still looking a little out of it, while his wife poured three glasses of dessert wine. Neal had to suppress a smirk. This wasn’t the reaction of a man who didn’t care. Maybe there was some hope after all.  
El beamed at them: “I still have dessert in the oven. Who would like some?”

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I'm not very cooking- or wine-savvy, so I asked the internet which wine would go with what. I hope I didn't make a gastronomical faux pas.  
> 2) Trope-y? Trope-y. But who doesn't like a bit o' trope-y fluff (flangst?) ;)  
> 3) I'm leaving it up to you, kind reader, to decide whether El planned this out or not... ;)  
> 4) I found this OT3 fanmix while writing, check it out: http://8tracks.com/singularfate/triangles-are-my-favourite-shape  
> 5) Almost 800 words? Does that still count as a drabble? (On a sidenote, I never expected to go over 500 words, let along twice already.)  
> 6) Oh and the meat loaf is a reference to episode 5.04 ^^


End file.
